Politics with Marc Ambinder

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Feb 20 2009, 4:18 pm by Marc Ambinder

The White House Encourages Santelli, On Purpose

This is very simple. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs went out of his way today to blast CNBC's Rick Santelli for his "rant" yesterday against Obama's mortgage assistance plan.  The early press reaction asks why the White House would give Santelli free publicity and elevate him to Official status? Easy: they'd rather the opposition be identified with Santelli and stock brokers than with, say, a Joe the Plumber type (but who actually is a plumber and who has serious real reservations about the mortgage plan). Let opponents of the plan get into a tizzy, and let them have Santelli -- whose regular guy creds have to be established -- as their spoxman.  Because, as it stands, ordinary folks don't much trust Wall Street these days....  Still, as Chris Good writes below, the Santelli moment was real enough, and it might catalyze something among conservatives, and it might be the type of political activity that an enterprising Republican presidential candidate can take advantage of.

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Comments (13)

TeresaKopec

I think reporters who are based in NY & DC are missing what is going on on the ground. We are solidly middle class, but every friend we have is scared of being laid off right now. I'm talking about architects and middle management, not construction workers. They are in same house they had ten years ago and their kids are in good public schools. They do not want to exhaust 401k if they lose their jobs. They see home program as safety net if something bad happens.

These people did not speculate & will pay mortgage as long as possible to stay with neighbors, keep kids in same school, & not have to try and find tiny apartment. It would never cross their mind to just walk out.

You guys have too many wealthy friends who will be OK if they lose their jobs. Normal people don't have huge savings to draw on to pay mortgage that was perfectly affordable when they were employed. And to be called a "loser" by Santelli stings as does the attitude amongst the press that you are a bum if you get laid off.

Darius (Replying to: TeresaKopec)

Teresa's absolutely right. Santelli's comments were an insult to ordinary American homeowners, and the media's portrayal of those comments as "populist" merely proves how out-of-touch they really are.

As for whether this might energize Republicans... who the hell cares? As the last election proved, the Republican base can be completely energized, and they'll still lose if they fail to reach out to moderate voters.

Pascal (Replying to: TeresaKopec)

First of all, you are probably a bum if you get laid off. It's not in the company's interest to lay off a non-bum. I voted for Obama, but this Obama/victimization (Obamanation) is amazing to me. It is amazing to me that so many people whom I thought were adults were not; and are in fact just people crying out for the fruits of the labor of other people's individual achievements.

Here we come U.S.S.R.

I have written up my views on the primary cause of this distraphoe here: http://pascalsdog.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-media-driving-recessiondepression.html (HINT: It's the media, obviously.)

The media has an agenda and it's not liberality; it's RATINGS dummies. And what's selling now and I suppose forever is CONFLICT and siding with the underdog/minority. E'nuff said.

Sophie Amrain (Replying to: Pascal)

Rather brainless argument, I am afraid. So in a big recession when suddenly 10% of the work force gets laid off additionally, these 10% suddenly developed bum-ness? The percentage of people doing acceptable to good work should be rather stable. However the number of layed-off people waxes and wanes with the economy - obviously these fluctuations are not influenced by peoples character traits.

Also it is strange that you voted for Obama, if you are missing any detectable empathy, as empathy is one of his obvious characteristics. What did you appreciate in him?

TeresaKopec (Replying to: Pascal)

One of our friends is a top engineer at a big, national firm. He has been there over 20 years. The company cut everyone's hours to 35 per week in order to retain staff. However he says that there are NO new projects after March because new construction has ground to a halt. He is a Republican & very conservative, but scared. He & his wife have been in their home a long time but they still have a few years on their mortgage & two kids in college. He is not a bum in any sense of the word.

smapdi (Replying to: Pascal)

So what you are saying is that if I have no exposure to commercial media, I wont be laid off and the financial crisis will be over?

scott

My father was just laid off after working for a firm for 41 years. My job had been under threat for approx 24 months (I am an architect working for a real estate firm). I know what the "pain" feels like.

And I've no idea about the previous commenter, but I voted for Obama because of his skills in diplomacy, "outside the box" thinking, general calm and confident personality. I thought in my heart that he was a "learner." And GOD was I ready for somebody like that after the last 8 years.

I AM SO DISAPPOINTED!!! He hasn't learned ANYTHING "outside the box" for leading us through this free-credit-induced bubble burst. His bank bailouts were pure Wall Street handouts, and this mortgage rescue crap is pure political pandering.

But you know what the problem is? Despite myself and my father paying our mortgages, I also personally know 3 or 4 people who purchased MUCH more home then they should have in the last 3 years (just because they could!... they normally would have continued to rent). 2 of them acted as if walking away from it was nothing to them. They have no pride or commitment or sense of responsibility.

So sorry to your engineer friend, and to my father, and to potentially myself. I'd rather go broke under my own fault than spend a single dollar paying for the absolute stupidity of many other homeowners.

I don't need you or your elected official telling me which one of us should get help.

(And after 20 years of mortgage payoffs, and proper saving and planning, one should be able to withstand 6-12 months of unemployment.)

We are a country that prides itself on saving nothing. Take Econ 101. The story ends badly.

underdog

TeresaKopec is right. I am in KC and Sprint is the city's biggest employer. They announced 8000 job cuts 2000 of which are in this town. With those cuts comes other cuts at grocery stores, restaurants, movie theaters, city taxes, state taxes, do I make myself CLEAR here?

Santelli's imbecilic RANT is just food for the mobs that want quick answers and want to be left with no hangover. The fact is we were on a long binge and the bill has come due. People were cut down by this and some of them deserved it and some of them did not. The simplistic approach is to try and blame ACORN or blam losers, as this Santelli moron does, but the real truth is that we let this happen.

We have to act to save our neighbors, when they are losing their homes because of being too blindly optimistic and overreaching, or because they are suffering medical expenses out of control, or because they were downsized to India, China, Mexico, or anywhere else. America has lost sight of our core values. We should be supporting our neighbors, not cutting them down and throwing them under the bus.

scott

Underdog, who is stopping you from "supporting your neighbors" currently?

Shadrach

Sam was never a licensed plumber. He worked under the table undermining real plumbers. Please don't push his myth

sdgal

Ambinder, you lose points bringing up Joe the "unlicensed" Plumber/wannabe author/hack journalist.

BTW, I've got friends at a well regarded high-tech startup who are facing possible layoffs next week. Their company had been profitable as of late, but to survive in this environment, their CEO has to cut a quarter of his budget now. And, anyone left will have to take an 8 to 15 percent paycut with the guys at the top taking the biggest hit.

And, these are fiscally conservative people. Nobody has a fancy house (although none were cheap because this is Southern California). Nobody sends their kids to private schools. Nobody drives a fancy car. They were finally getting their company onto solid ground. But, they sell their products into a highly leveraged industry. So, it is to be seen if everybody lands on their feet.


jb

I think you are all misconstruing Santelli's comments, and so is the White House. I didn't read that he was talking about those people that have been in the same house for 10 years and that are solid until losing their jobs. He was talking about those who have knowingly abused a system in any number of ways....whether it is overextending their credit in unwise ways, intentionally defaulting on loans so that the government will help bail them out, or any number of other ways of abusing the system.

A lot of this comes down to the fact that we have become a "what about me" society. If someone owns a home and we don't we say "what about me" and buy a home we can't afford. If our neighbor buys a bigger home we say "what about me" and go out and buy a bigger home ourself, whether it is what we need or not. Now if someone is getting a bailout we say "what about me" and want our own piece of the pie. We know longer are a society that has a standard of living, for many it is a standard of luxury. We all want it, and in order to get it, many have made bad decisions. Now many of us who have done things right and are still above water see our current and future tax money go to bail out some of these people who made decisions to mortgage themselves to the hilt, max out their credit card, and now are bust and we are saying "what about me".